Loma Prieta Earthquake Study, 1990 (ICPSR 34426)

The Loma Prieta Earthquake Study examined the five-county San Francisco Bay area affected by the earthquake on October 17, 1989. Residents were asked about their experiences during, and responses to, the Loma Prieta Earthquake, measuring 6.9 on the Richter magitude scale. Telephone interviews were conducted with approximately 700 adult residents of Alameda, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Mateo, and San Francisco Counties. Information was collected on topics such as evacuation, personal property ... (more info)

The Loma Prieta Earthquake Study examined the five-county San Francisco Bay area affected by the earthquake on October 17, 1989. Residents were asked about their experiences during, and responses to, the Loma Prieta Earthquake, measuring 6.9 on the Richter magitude scale. Telephone interviews were conducted with approximately 700 adult residents of Alameda, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Mateo, and San Francisco Counties. Information was collected on topics such as evacuation, personal property damage, disaster/emergency planning and preparedness, and emotional distress as a result of the earthquake experience. Demographic variables include gender, age, income, ethnicity, religious preference, home ownership status, education level, marital status, employment status and industry, and area of the five counties where the respondent resided.

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Methodology

Sample:
This is a telephone survey of San Francisco Bay Area residents' experiences of and responses to the Loma Prieta earthquake of October 17, 1989. 656 adult residents of Alameda, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Mateo, and San Francisco Counties were selected by random digit dialing (RDD) and interviewed by telephone for this study.

Time Method:
Cross-sectional

Weight:
The data are not weighted and no weight variables are present in the data. However, the high intensity areas (those areas where the earthquake was more intense) of San Francisco and Alameda counties adjacent to the Bay Bridge and including the Marina area, and the areas of Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties (which include the town of Santa Cruz) were intentionally oversampled to obtain approximately 225 interviews in those areas. When weights were assigned, respondents in the Santa Cruz area received a weight of .16, those in San Francisco-Oakland a weight of .96, and those in the five county area a weight of 1.00.

Mode of Data Collection:
telephone interview

Description of Variables:
The data consist of 536 variables that are centered around respondents' recollection of the earthquake in Loma Prieta on October 17, 1989, including information on emergency response, respondent's location when the earthquake struck, insurance claims, reactions since the earthquake, and how respondents obtained information immediately following the earthquake.

Response Rates:
Response rates were 70.3 percent to 80.6 percent in the San Francisco-Oakland area, between 74.4 percent to 79.7 percent in the Boulder Creek-Wantsonville-Santa Cruz area, and 68.9 percent to 74.4 percent in the rest of the five-county area.

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: